The Reckoning - BLACKBIRD book 3

8. almost a circle

Hank knew it was a lost battle, so he only sighed when a knock on his door woke him up at seven next morning. He let the team in, not bothering to excuse himself for wearing only boxer trunks and a tee, and took his ritual half an hour to shower and shave, not even interested in what the others were doing in his room.

Detective Jones had offered them a space to work at the Rochester Police Station, but Gillian politely declined. The whole town was upset about Bobby being found dead, and she didn't want to be working in open view, exposed to interruptions and questions from the people. So she decided to turn Hank's room into their temporary office.

About nine, Aldana went to fetch the third round of coffee for everybody. When she came back, Fred, Hank and Ron were on their phones, keeping their voices low and taking notes. She delivered paper cups among them and went to stand by Gillian before the mirror, turned into an improvised board. Bobby's picture was now at the end of a timeline, the pictures of the other three boys before it.

"Here's your fix. Will never be like Orlando's, but tastes good enough," she said.

Gillian took the paper cup without a word.

"So what d'we have so far?" Aldana asked.

"Four boys in almost three years. All the same age, all the same type, all from different towns on both sides of the river. If they're all dead, as I'm afraid they are, he kept them from fourth to nine months."

"Any clue why the periods vary?"

"Not yet. The lads are talking to the local detectives who worked the cases. They're all cold by now, and just like Bobby, there were no witnesses, no traces to follow whatsoever. These boys just vanished and their parents took hours to realize." Gillian pointed at the first picture in the timeline. "Mark asked for permission to go to a comic store with a couple of friends after school and never got back home." She pointed at the second picture. "Harry always walked alone the four streets from home to the park for his soccer practice. One day, when his mother went to pick him up, the coach told her he had never shown up." Gillian pointed at the third picture. "And Lou was a gifted boy. He was a piano wonder. His piano teacher lived five streets away from his home, so he would ride on his bike from home and back. Only one day he left his teacher's place and never came back home. Even his bike disappeared."

"Son of a bitch."

"And a very sophisticated son of a bitch. The boys are from small towns, and of an age when parents start granting them a little liberty to move around by themselves during the day. This scumbag studies the boys' habits, maybe even their parents' as well, and abducts them when he knows he has a couple of hours before anyone notices they're gone."

"And you think they're all dead?"

Gillian nodded, grimacing. "Dumped into the Salmon Falls like Bobby. I think that if we can figure the dump point, and we dredge the river, we will find whatever's left of their bodies."

"Why the Salmon Falls? You think it has some sick symbolic meaning for him?"

"Maybe, or maybe it's just more of his cunning, like abducting children from different towns. The way he hijacks them doesn't trigger Amber Alerts, because nobody witnesses the abduction, and there are no ransom calls. The boys just vanish. So the cases stay local. Different towns, even different counties and states. There's no way a local detective can connect the dots, because they're not even aware of the other missing children."

"Reg, your prints," said Ron, shouldering his phone to hand her four printed pages.

Gillian took them to the mirror and Aldana helped her to stick them together, forming a map of the area on both sides of the river. Gillian handed Aldana a red marker and fetched another page from the table.

"Okay, Al, mark them up in red. Rochester, New Hampshire... Looks like Bobby was the only child this side of the river. Then up north, Lebanon, Maine."

"Got it."

"Now move to the east, to Sanford, Maine."

"Yep."

"Now southwest, North Berwick."

"Done."

Aldana and Gillian stared at the map for a moment, then traded a suspicious frown.

"That's almost a circle, Reg," said Aldana.

Gillian nodded, stepping closer.

"Of course. Such a cunning son of a bitch wouldn't hunt in his comfort zone." She tapped at the empty space circled by the red marks. "This is where he's keeping them."

"The map shows no towns there."

"But there's roads. And where there's roads..."

"There's houses," said Fred, joining them. "We need satellite from that area, and take a look ourselves."

"But we also need to know how he finds his prey."

Fred winked at her. "I'll leave that to your crazy brain. I'm just the handyman here, so I better stick to drive."

Gillian tried to smile. "Did you get anything we can use?" she asked.

"Nope. Just more big nada. That's why I could use a drive."

Now she did smile, at least a little, and nodded, glancing at Aldana. "Wanna go?"

"Yes, please. All this is really getting on my nerves."

"On all our nerves," said Ron, showing up behind Fred. "Where are we going?"

"Et tu, Brutus?" asked Gillian.

Ron patted her shoulder. "Have fun with Doctor Grumpy."